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Steve Agbota
The Managing Director of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, has said that the corporation wouldcontinue to tackle challenges facing the nation’s economy and the banking sector.
Speaking at the 30th anniversary of the corporation at the weekend in Lagos, Ibrahim said that NDIC has gone to learn from the success which Korea and Taiwan recorded in the Internet banking and digital banking.
On the corporation’s anniversary, he added, “we have come a long way, we have done our best but we are also equally aware of the daunting challenges ahead of us. We can only confirm that we will continue to do our best to tackle the challenges facing the economy and banking system in particular.
“This 30th anniversary serves as an introspective and a reflection of who we are, what we are and where we are coming from and how we overcome the difficulties in the last 30 years. More importantly, we acknowledged the fact that we need to reposition the corporation to face new challenges ahead.”
According to him, the new challenges include new emerging operational risk, phenomenal goals of asset of the Nigerian banking industry and its implications and regulations.
However, he said the phenomenal growth of Nigeria’s population, young population, demography shift, changing customers’ preferences, poverty and unemployment are daunting challenges which could largely be addressed if Nigeria has a very stable banking system.
He explained: “We are also aware of the emerging role of Fintech in the financial industry, blockchain technology and phenomenon growth in digital currency globally and Nigeria is not left behind. In fact, it is in appreciation of this that arrangement is underway to develop a team of experts in innovation and digital technology in the NDIC.
“As a matter of fact, about a month and a half ago, the Board of Directors and management visited Korea and Taiwan and sign MoU with our sister organization over there so we could learn rapidly from the advancement they have recorded in the area of internet banking and digital technology in general.
“Korea has just licensed two or three Internet banks only and we asked them, how are you going to over see the regulation of the banks that will operate 24/7? They said they are going to employ Artificial Intelligence (AI) to ensure effectiveness and regulations of these institutions,” he explained.
Although, he said they are very vital to the development of their own financial system and they promote financial inclusion but they have their own risk concerns about money laundering, disruptive of financial system and others.
He hinted it is in appreciation of this development that in the last 10 years, NDIC has recruited hundreds of talented young men and women who are knowlegeable about the digital age and formed 75 per cent of the workforce.
He stated: “They have been well trained to face this challenges that I just mentioned. We are also happy to say we have set out recruitment of young women; the workforce consists about 35 per cent of the NDIC.”
